Training begins

From April to October of this year, I biked daily. Daily to work (a few miles each way), to various errands and random points, driving only when weather was the crappiest. Thanks to daylight savings time, needing to be on campus until 5, and my general wariness of the ability of Long Island drivers to see anything after dark, I haven't biked since the end of November. Hell, my last route outside of just back and forth to work was October 8th.

However, during spring break I plan on doing some long distance biking, some sort of multi-day tour. Not sure who with, not sure where (though I do have some ideas, more about that later), but I hope to be pushing about 400-500 miles in 6 or 7 days. That, combined with having more time at the end of the semester, means returning to the gym.

I did about 20 minutes on the bike (about how long it would take me one way) and one hill workout...and it felt great to feel that tingling in the thighs and get that slight weak-leg feeling. But, after a summer of solid biking around, gym bikes just feel so lame, so unnatural. They have no concept of the vagaries and wonders of hills, pavement, potholes, the necessities of intersections and traffic lights, the real feel of air. Man, I can't wait until I can get on a bike again. I'm hoping to tomorrow. Oh wait- it's supposed to blizzard all weekend. Wonderful.

It seems a little futuristic to be thinking about a possible trip four months away. However, I've never done a multi-day tour, and only biked 75 miles in a day once. It's not going to get that nice out before the end of March, so I don't know how many miles on real wheels I'll be able to get. So I have to do what I can to make sure my body is in tip-top shape over the next three and a half months so I can be ready for a week of solid activity.